


The Wakandan Prince Scam

by RedBlazer



Series: Bucky Barnes and the Case of "Everyone I Know is Way Cooler than I am" [5]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Library, Bisexual Bucky Barnes, Bisexual Steve Rogers, Librarian Bucky, M/M, POV Bucky Barnes, Past Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Post-Serum Steve Rogers, Winter Soldier Peggy Carter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-19
Updated: 2018-08-13
Packaged: 2019-06-13 04:31:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15356301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedBlazer/pseuds/RedBlazer
Summary: Bucky finds himself on a midnight Wakandan ship going anywhere after two months of not being able to be in the same room as Steve post Civil War. Steve's dealing with the fact that Peggy is very much alive. And Okoye is silently judging all of the drama happening on her ship.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a sequel to I Understood That Reference, set a few years in the future! This fic will be an alternate version of the events of The WInter Soldier and Civil War. You should probably read that before you read this so that you understand what is happening!

“So this is new.” Bucky says, casually leaning against the bay door of the space plane that he’s currently standing in.

Steve, walking out of a literal fog like something on a romance novel cover sweeps Bucky up in both arms. He plants one on Bucky’s lips that makes his toes tingle.

Bucky tries not to notice the missing shield. Tries not to think about walking through their neighborhood on his own, sleeping in their bed also alone, and generally doing everything the way he always thought he would end up: alone.

Steve smells like gunpowder and diesel smoke when Bucky sticks his nose into that perfect divot where Steve’s collarbone is and wonders where he was. Steve hugs Bucky more tightly, the two months since they’ve seen each other in person wearing around his ability to control his strength.

“Pretty neat, huh?” Steve asks, pulling Bucky away and looking at him from arms length. Bucky thinks this might have been what it was like to have someone waiting back home for you while the war was going on. He absently thinks about going down to the docks and waving his hat at boats leaving port. And yeah, he would do that if it were Steve on the trip.

Bucky shakes himself out of his absent thoughts. “Yeah, I especially loved the part where I was kidnapped—well, man-napped really—by her.” Bucky jerks his head over his shoulder at the woman manning the helm of the ship. She’s easily the most badass and intimidating woman that Bucky’s ever seen and one time he walked passed Joan Jett on the street.

“It was my pleasure.” The woman, Okoye says. She’s watching the two of them while absently holding a spear. A spear.

On a plane that may as well be a space ship.

After man-napping Bucky from his apartment.

It’s just a lot to process.

“Sorry about that. But we had to be sure no one could follow you. We should be there soon and I’ll fill you in on all the details.” Steve sighs and then touches the side of Bucky’s face all tenderly and _now_ Bucky needs to pick his brain up off the floor.

“I’m sure they didn’t follow me.” Bucky gestures to himself wildly, in all of his pajama wearing glory. “It was—is—the middle of the night!”

“Sure was.” Steve smiles fondly at him and then his vision tracks a bit off center. “Hey this may be a stupid question; Buck, where’s your arm?”

Bucky grimaces. Steve’s tugging the sleeve of his t-shirt up over Bucky’s shoulder, revealing the housing that connected his shoulder to the arm and anchored the shoulder to his chest. There’s an empty metallic socket staring back at him. “It’s been a long day for both of us, but I hope your observational skills were better earlier in the day.”

“Buck.” Steve says in a _tone_. A tone that’s not so much warning as it is exasperation for what is to come.

“Captain, we should depart. We will lose cloud cover within the next few minutes.” Okoye tells them, pointedly walking away from what has become an awkward conversation to say the least.

Bucky walks further into the ship, pulling Steve with him along the way. The bay door closes and a moment later the ship rises into the air without so much as a bump or the sound of an engine roaring.

“I am firmly #TeamCap. Firmly. As you know via twitter.” Bucky tells Steve, a clear stalling tactic. “Some may say that I’m your #1 fan. And someone once yelled ‘There goes the guy who’s fucking that war criminal’ at me out of an Uber once. I think they were drunk, but still, it’s a well known fact that you and me—we’re a team.”

He leads them to a set of seats hopefully out of the way from where Okoye can hear. She’s so fucking cool, she’d probably just tell her boyfriend why she doesn’t have an arm like it was no big deal.

“I love you.” Steve says, putting a hand on Bucky’s knee and putting an end to his rambling. “Tell me what happened.”

“Pettiness?” Bucky says, shrugging with one hand up by his shoulders.

Steve’s eyes go completely round in shock.

“Pettiness?” He repeat’s Bucky’s words, now rubbing at the shadow of stubble across his jaw. And it’s a serious look.

“Yeah?” Bucky sighs. “I’m not the bigger man. I mean, certainly not in this relationship.” He gestures in the general direction of Steve’s junk. “But also not in real life when _some guy_ goes around arresting _mutual friends of ours_ for crimes they totally didn’t commit, then forms a squad of _our friends_ and some kid in a stupid costume to fight _more of our friends_ at an airport in Germany of all places! Then, some _guys in terrible suits_ showed up at the library and interrogated me and tried to get me to flip on you like I’ve even known where you were for the last two months!”

By the time he’s done talking, Steve’s mouth has fallen open. Bucky puts his arm over Steve’s shoulder and hauls him in to lean against him. “I know it’s a lot to take in, even though you lived through all the other stuff and I only had to deal with the bad coffee and the threats to my freedom.” He pats Steve on the head. “So I did what any normal person would do.”

“I hesitate to even ask-“

“I went to Reed Richards and had him remove my arm. And then I sent it to Stark Tower in the center of an edible arrangement.” Bucky tells him, thinking back on the two days it took for Reed to figure out the mechanics of the thing, Johnny lingering around the lab for literally no reason while looking mildly singed around the edges. “Oh, and I made the hand give the middle finger.”

“Of course you did.” Steve sighs, just sort of melting into Bucky. “But why didn’t you tell me?”

Bucky shrugs. “Because I knew you’d tell me not to do it, and I was in the mood to make mistakes. Plus, think about how pissed Tony was when he realized I went to Richards to do it? I’m sure someone photographed me going into the tower. Did you know I was in ‘Stars, they’re just like us!’ about a dozen times, and in every photo I have my eyes closed?”

Steve lets out the longest sigh Bucky’s ever heard.

“As your boyfriend I respect your choice.” Steve tells him pointedly.

“But you also think I’m an idiot.”

Steve tilts his head on Bucky’s shoulder, looking up at him with those giant blue eyes of his like he has thousands of times. “I want you to be safe.” He tells Bucky. “I’m worried about this interrogation situation however.”

Bucky smiles down at Steve. “I didn’t tell them anything. And once again, someone must have taken my photo because my lawyer showed up within half an hour and got me out of there.”

All Steve has to do is furrow his eyebrows at Bucky to get him to talk.

“Well he’s not my lawyer so much as an ex—“

“Has this one been exposed to a dangerous element too?” Steve asks, throwing up his arms and suddenly pacing the floor.

“Actually yeah.” Bucky nods his head. “Is this how you’re going to react every time I tell you about one of my old flings. Because there were a lot of them and you could wear a hole through the floor of this space craft and plummet into the ocean—again.”

“I’m not in the mood to be rational right now, Bucky.” Steve says. He starts unzipping just the top part of the uniform and for a second Bucky thinks he’s about to join the mile high club, but Steve’s just venting all of the sudden warmth from his surge of jealousy. “So what is he? A ninja? A shape shifter? An android?”

Bucky longs to cross both of his arms across his chest but alas.

“Steve, he’s a lawyer. And I’m pretty sure Matt is just that—because all the crazy chemical stuff that got dumped on him—it made him blind.”

Steve pauses just long enough to raise one hand up in conceit before saying, “I refuse to believe it until I put in some recon.”

“This is about Johnny isn’t it?” Bucky sighs, wondering how they got so off topic.

“Yes, probably, But I’m not rational enough to think about that right now.” Steve looks about a minute away from stamping his foot like a petulant child. Damn Bucky’s still so attracted to him.

“I don’t know how many times I have to tell you, yours is bigger than Johnny’s. And you’re just a way nicer person, I mean, hey, you got like all of our friends arrested to save _another mutual friend who doesn’t scare me_ from being murdered by _the guy in the stupid sunglasses._ ”

Steve pinches the bridge of his nose of out habit even though he no longer gets headaches. He takes a moment, breathing.

“What about Matt?” Steve asks and then awkwardly nods towards his own junk.

Bucky goes to say something and then pauses awkwardly.

Steve looks both scandalized and impressed. “Seriously?”

“Listen, it was a shock to me as well!” Bucky exclaims.

They both sit there for a full minute, Steve digesting the news that Bucky was saved from an interrogation by a blind lawyer with a big dick and Bucky trying to keep a straight face.

“So you’re okay though, right? How have the last months been for you without the arm?” Steve asks, taking a break from thinking about the lawyer he has to now put under surveillance.

“Really hard if I’m honest. My parents have been around more, giving me a hand, pretty literally. They’re almost as bad as the interrogation though. Mom wants to know where you are, and she thinks that somehow I’ll know if you’re eating enough. I didn’t tell them about any of the calls. They’d have everyone in the neighborhood knowing in about ten minutes.” Bucky says, trying to be as honest as possible. “I know we worked so hard to get it for me, but after everything that happened with him and what he did. I couldn’t have that thing on my body anymore.” He pauses. “I don’t want to say his name. I know it’s stupid, but I want to believe it was someone else who turned the world against you, Steve. How could it have been Tony? We were his family.”

It all comes spilling out of Bucky’s mouth before he can stop it, the things he’s been thinking for months but unable to say.

It’s Steve’s turn to take a seat beside Bucky and pull him in to lean against his chest. “Tony had information he thought was true. It very easily could have been me in his situation. He thought he was doing the right thing for us.”

Bucky shakes his head, Steve palms the back of it, calmly running his hand through Bucky’s hair. “This is getting long again.”

“So is yours, not regulation anymore.” Bucky reminds him, and a yawn slips out of his mouth before he can stop it.

“I’m not a soldier anymore, babe.” Steve’s voice rumbles against Bucky’s ear.

Bucky tries to soak up this feeling of content as his boyfriend holds him tightly in his arms. If he closes his eyes and ignores the slight feeling of flight all around him, he could imagine they’re sitting up in bed on a Sunday morning. He’s missed this so much. His hand busies itself by playing with the zipper on the chest of Steve’s uniform absently.

“Is she okay?” Bucky asks softly. He can’t say her name either. It’s too large, takes up too much room around them.

Steve hums softly in thought. “She will be. She’s stronger than H.Y.D.R.A. knew.”

“That’s good.” Bucky says, because it is.

He doesn’t get up and pace like Steve does whenever Bucky talks about an ex. He doesn’t, because if he did, he would always be pacing. She’s been in the back of his mind for over a year now.

Because Bucky knew who she was all along. He did the research. He watched the History Channel specials. He saw her there in the photos along with the Howling Commandos; a woman who was part of the most unorthodox unit in the history of the Army.

Bucky knew she was beautiful then. He even knew something had happened between her and Steve. She had died and Steve had mourned. The end.

But then she had showed up _in real life_ just as beautiful and even more deadly.

S.H.I.E.L.D. fell and then there was nothing but radio silence while Steve and Sam searched for her. They did eventually find her and all it took was a frame job by a madman. Steve gave up his title and practically every chance he and Bucky would have at a somewhat normal life when he stood up for what he knew was right.

A fracture went through their family, forcing everyone to two different sides, with Bucky firmly on Steve’s but still they were separated.

For her. And for what Steve knew was right.

“I love you.” Steve tells him.

And Bucky knows. He knows it with every fiber of his being. Knows it like he knows gravity exists and Okoye is listening to every word they’re saying.

“I love you too.” Bucky says.

He loves Steve. He loves this man, but it’s hard to not worry that Peggy does too.


	2. Chapter 2

Logically Bucky knows that the strangest thing to ever happen _should_ be meeting a man who spent decades frozen in ice, and acclimating said man to the 21 st century not unlike a pop culture tutor. The actual strangest thing to ever happen is that he and that man fell in love and the most unlikely thing to ever happen to Bucky is that they actually made it.

He’s in love with a man who pulls helicopters out of the sky, helps old ladies with their groceries, and is filled with a comical level of totally harmless jealousy at the mere mention of someone else sharing Bucky’s bed.

Steve loves him too.

It’s why he’s on this ship in his pajamas. It’s why he stopped his pathetic attempts to fight off Okoye when she grabbed him. Because Steve has a plan.

And it involves the most beautiful place that Bucky’s ever seen.

He wakes on the ship, sitting up but leaning most of his body weight on Steve. Steve’s asleep but his arms hold Bucky firmly in place, like they always have.

Bucky’s blinking, shaking his arm free to locate his glasses (Steve always puts them somewhere for safe keeping). He finds them and puts them on, his eyes focusing on the bright light filtering through the windows of the ship and the immense sea of green before him. The treetops stretch out into the horizon beneath them, the wind making the leaves flutter this way and that.

Steve startles awake, as usual. He doesn’t even have the decency to look groggy or the least bit sleepy. He hums and plants a kiss on the crown of Bucky’s head absently.

“We should get up, you won’t want to miss this.” He says, pretty much just dragging Bucky out of the seat like a doll with his superior strength.

“Good morning Captain.” Okoye says from her pilot’s seat without even turning to glance at them. “We will arrive in 10 minutes.”

And then she dips the ship abruptly to fly directly into the treetops.

Bucky has about a second to react in panic, his stomach dropping and then instead of being impaled by tree limbs, they’ve passed through a wall of light and there’s a city before them.

“Holy shit.” Bucky manages.

It’s nothing like he’s ever seen. It makes the sky scrapers and buildings of New York City look like a child’s sand castle in their design.

“Welcome to Wakanda.” Okoye says, her voice filled with totally justified pride.

“This—this is Wakanda?” Bucky pulls away from Steve to press his nose to the glass of one of the windows as though he could get any closer. Below them the city streets are teeming with people, beside them they pass tall buildings in magnificent shapes made from mixed materials of wood, metal, and huge sheets of glass. A massive river pulses with life through the middle of the city. “It was supposed to be all sheep herders and tiny villages! That’s what we learned in geography. I’m going to have to write my 8th grade teacher a very smarmy letter about all of this.”

Okoye scoffs at that.

“That’s the point, Buck.” Steve comes up behind him and lets his hand rest on Bucky’s shoulder. It seems like since they’ve been reunited all Steve wants to do is keep Bucky within touching distance. “Hiding in plain sight. Who would ever suspect a place like that would have access to this kind of technology?”

“Didn’t that cat guy from here just try to kill you?” Bucky shakes his head. He’s going to need coffee if this is going to work.

Okoye makes a low humming noise that sounds vaguely threatening.

“Yeah, Buck. A lot of people just tried to kill me, but we were able to turn some of those relationships around.” Steve says. Bucky thinks vaguely about the blurry photos from the battle at the airport, of a woman in tactical gear running alongside Steve down the tarmac. “And King T’Challa’s recently had some internal conflict that gave him a change of heart. So we’ve been invited to stay here while we’re in transition.”

“You mean while you’re hiding from like _everyone_ in the government.” Bucky fills in.

Okoye smirks.

“Yes. Something like that.”

“And the New York Public Library system. You were billed for a book and for the life of me I cannot find it anywhere.”

 

\----------

 

Bucky’s never met a king and he’s certainly never met one in his pajamas.

Also, T’Challa is by far the most attractive person that Bucky’s ever seen in real life. But he can’t tell Steve that.

Though, every single person that Bucky has seen here for far happens to be a total smokeshow. Every member of T’Challa’s all female guard make Bucky feel a lot of things he can’t distinguish between attraction and wanting to be one of them.

“Captain, welcome back.” T’Challa greets them at the entrance to his literal palace. As in an actual palace. He shakes Steve’s hand and then turns to Bucky. “And I see this is your partner, the one we went to such lengths to secure. Welcome, Bucky.”

“I’m in my pajamas.” Bucky responds, nodding.

Steve clears his throat. “Bucky’s had a long day.”

“It is 9 A.M.” A young woman says, stepping out from behind T’Challa. Her hair is pulled into an elaborate bun made from many small braids and she’s wearing a t-shirt with the Babadook on it. She’s staring pointedly at the place where Bucky’s sleeve is flapping in the warm breeze.

“Pardon my sister, Shuri.” T’Challa throws a bit of side eye her way. “I believe she’s interested in getting you into her lab.”

“How much did your former prosthetic weigh?” She asks, pulling a small tablet from a large pocket in her skirt and tapping at it with her finger.

“Uh,” Bucky shrugs. “I didn’t exactly weigh myself before and after.” He says awkwardly.

She nods. “Enough that the housing is anchored to your ribcage, is it not?”

“Yeah. How do you know that? How does she know that?”

She just smiles and turns heel into the palace, tapping away on something. “You are in need of a major upgrade!”

T’Challa sighs and motions for the two of them to follow him into his home. The whole building is an architectural wonder with areas of wood and metal joining in twisting structures and others made entirely from glass. And there’s green everywhere. Entire trees inside the massive entryway that must stretch at least 50 feet high.

T’Challa leads them down hallways until they reach an area that looks more like a traditional home and less like a structure from Inception. There are sliding doors that lead out to a terraced garden that overlooks much of the city, living areas with walls made entirely from glass, and finally, thank god, a kitchen.

Bucky hones in on any remaining skill from when he was a barista in college the moment he sees the espresso machine on one of the black marble countertops. He’s packing a shot before he can even stop himself, having a bit of trouble doing it one handed, but Steve knows well enough to only step in when Bucky asks for help.

Once he’s thrown back a shot of amazingly strong, rich and concentrated coffee, Bucky turns back to a smirking T’Challa and a Steve who is finally unlacing his boots after all of that travel.

“Not that I don’t love the coffee or the fact that now I’m in on a huge secret, but I really gotta know what’s going on here, guys!” Bucky resists the urge to stamp his foot, knowing that the image of a 30 year old man stomping his foot while wearing Wonder Woman pajama pants doesn’t inspire much in the way of a serious demand.

“There’s time for that,” Steve says, holding out an arm and gesturing for Bucky to follow. “We’ll get cleaned up and meet you in an hour.” Steve tells T’Challa.

“By all means, take your time.” T’Challa says, probably noting Bucky’s absolutely wild bedhead.

Steve leads Bucky down another hallway with a familiarity that shouldn’t surprise Bucky but it does. It’s been 6 months since they’ve been in the same room, and all that time Steve’s been sleeping somewhere, eating somewhere, and doing whatever amazing work he’s been doing somewhere. It shouldn’t surprise Bucky that place could have been here.

Bucky’s lead to a small suite of rooms with an amazing view of the city before them. It’s sparsely furnished and a bit messy in a lived-in way. There’s a stack of paperback books on one of the bedside tables, a couple of shirts are sticking out of the hamper, and a pair of boxing gloves peek out from the open closet door. Other than that though, it’s a welcoming room with sleek furniture.

“We’ll have to get you some clothes that actually fit.” Steve’s rifling through the drawers of his own clothes. “But these should work.” He comes back with a stack of worn cotton clothing.

There’s a crick in Bucky’s neck from sleeping sitting up on the plane and the espresso coursing through his blood hasn’t woken him up as much as it’s made him feel twitchy. This feels like an anticlimactic reunion.

He’s Bucky Fucking Barnes. He evacuated thousands of people out of the city during The Event. He lost his arm and found out who Steve really was in the same thirty seconds. He seems to be a magnet for people with extraordinary abilities. His life’s turned into an action movie with a 5-movie contract, and that’s just the sex part.

And now he’s standing in Steve’s Wakandan bedroom after half a year away from each other and all he can think about is how tired he is?

“Yeah, that’s great.” Bucky takes the stack of clothes and throws them carelessly over his shoulder.

“Bucky—“ Steve begins, sounding annoyed.

“I haven’t seen you in forever!” Bucky says from inside his shirt as he pulls it over his head. “As in 6 months of fucking missing you, and thinking you could be dead in a ditch somewhere. Looking over my shoulder and not doing the dishes—because that’s your job.” He throws the shirt in the general direction of the hamper.

“Look, I know. I’m sorry.” Steve says, cupping Bucky’s face in his hands. He presses their foreheads together. Meanwhile Bucky’s shoving his pants and underwear down his legs and kicking them ungracefully away.

“This whole situation is so fucked up, Steve.” Bucky says, pulling on the zipper of Steve’s uniform only to have it get caught in buckles that are part of the armor plating. Steve seems pretty oblivious to the fact that Bucky’s naked and doing everything in his power to get Steve in the same state. “And I should have expected it, because hello—“ he nods at the shoulder encased in metal with an empty socket “this is how things _started_. But I missed you, so please, for the love of god—take off your damn pants.”

Steve’s brow furrows in confusion for a second as he realizes they’re having a moment from two different movies. “Oh. _Oh.”_ He says at the realization of what’s going on and what Bucky needs from him right now.

The first time they did this it was awkward but amazing.

Bucky had been so self-conscious about losing his arm and how that would change things in the bedroom. Steve had been the definition of cautious, worried that with his superior strength, he may accidentally hurt Bucky.

But it had worked, several times that night. And over the next few years Bucky had never felt like someone knew his body as well as Steve had.

Now Bucky’s standing almost the same way he had the first time, naked and without his arm again. But he doesn’t feel self-conscious. He feels impatient and maybe a little giddy.

Even more so when Steve picks him up, using the strength that Steve had been so nervous about in the beginning. Bucky’s deposited on the bathroom counter, easy as anything.

Steve kisses him and now Bucky’s feeling the fireworks, the passionate reunion they were both too exhausted to have last night. Everywhere Bucky’s skin touches, it’s met with the cool plating and durable fabric of Steve’s uniform. He can feel the metal star pressing into the skin of his chest like it will leave a mark there forever. And maybe it already has.

Bucky’s got an arm as tightly wrapped around Steve’s shoulders as he can, but he still can’t counter Steve pulling away after a few minutes. Steve’s lower lip is already swollen his cheeks are flushed, but he’s still 90% in his armor. He practically stumbles to the huge shower stall against the wall of the bathroom and presses a button that makes water begin to fall from the ceiling of the entire stall like rain. Bucky can feel the warmth of the vapor against his skin almost instantly.

“You know, I figured—two birds, one stone.” Steve nods his head in the direction of the shower stall. His hands finally go to work on all of the fastenings that make sure the suit cradles all of the precious organs that keep him alive. “You don’t want to jump in first?” he asks Bucky.

“Nope.” Bucky stays exactly where he is, watching every bit of Steve as it’s revealed. “I want you to finish what you’re doing and then I want you to carry me.”

Steve obliges.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for your awesome awesome support! I love comments and kudos! <3

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I love kudos and comments!


End file.
